At least 20 dead in two migrant boats off Crete, two arrested

The Greek coastguard and Frontex pulled survivors from four boats south of the island between Saturday and Monday, including a toddler taken to hospital. Frontex named the eastern Mediterranean the EU's busiest route in October.

Correction: An earlier version left out a second boat, found off Crete early on Monday 9 November with 12 dead and 18 survivors, and placed Monday's details with the boat found on Saturday.

The Greek coastguard pulled eight bodies and 28 refugees and migrants from a boat off southern Crete on Saturday evening. Early on Monday it recovered 12 more bodies and rescued 18 people from a second dinghy, spotted by a Moroccan-flagged container ship 15 nautical miles south-east of Kali Limenes. Two Sudanese nationals, aged 28 and 16, were arrested after survivors identified them as the smugglers. The case is now with the Heraklion Central Coast Guard Authority, which runs the preliminary investigation.

Frontex, the European border and coastguard agency, spotted two more boats south of Crete in the same Monday hours. One of its aircraft located a vessel carrying about 47 migrants 30 nautical miles south of Kali Limenes. An unmanned drone found another with roughly 40 people 31 nautical miles further south-east. Greece's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre coordinated the operations. Frontex rescue teams picked up the people on both boats and brought them ashore at Kali Limenes.

The Saturday boat was first reported on Friday afternoon, when the coastguard learned of a dinghy in distress six nautical miles south-southwest of Kali Limenes. The case file against the two arrested Sudanese nationals charges them with illegal entry, facilitating illegal entry, forming a gang and fatal exposure. A local coastguard official, speaking to Reuters anonymously, described the state of those pulled from the water: "We found them shivering from the cold".

Four survivors of the Monday dinghy were taken to hospital, including a toddler, according to The National, and one of them later died. The bodies recovered are to be transferred to the Forensic Medicine Service of the University General Hospital of Heraklion, as Ta Nea reported. Sevi Voloudaki, Greece's deputy minister of migration and asylum, spoke of people who are victims of smuggling networks, Newsbomb reported. She referred to at least 20 migrants found dead in Crete.

Voloudaki said Migration Minister Pleuris will announce within days a return-hubs initiative with other EU states, outside Europe. Frontex named the eastern Mediterranean the busiest route into the EU in October, with the Libya-to-Crete corridor its busiest stretch. Irregular crossings into the bloc fell by a third this year.